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'Kill the poor to balance budget'

Yahoo!7 Finance•17April,2013

An article responding to the government’s planned super changes targeting the wealthy, has recommended killing off the poorest 20 per cent of Australians as an alternate way to balance the nation’s budget.

“A modest cull would strike at the root of our fiscal dilemma,” suggested author Toby Ralph in his piece titled “Kill the poor” published on the website of Liberal Party-aligned think tank, Menzies house.

Mr Ralph, a long-time Liberal Party strategist, went on to say that “in contrast to the fabulously rich, the enormously poor make little useful contribution to society.

“They consume more than they contribute, putting tremendous strain on the national budget.

“If the least productive 20% of citizens were decommissioned it would directly release a recurrent $25bn, which would almost cover overspending by the Gillard Government between now and September 14th, assuming Mr Swan maintains his long-term average rate of profligacy.

Mr Ralph’s gruesome prescription for balancing the national budget was labelled as a “disgraceful rant” by Treasurer Wayne Swan who questioned the wisdom of Menzies House publishing the article, reports Fairfax.

Detailing further benefits from his bloody prescription, Mr Ralph suggests that “innovative industries would spring up, creating exciting new jobs in processing camps.

“Traffic would move faster unhampered by windscreen cleaners, streets would be cleared of pavement artists and beggars while homeless shelters in our better suburbs could be turned into agreeable gastro pubs, cafes and wine bars.

“Think of the inner city investment opportunities."

Hinting at the tongue-in-check nature of the article Ralph goes onto espouse more benefits from the cull.

“Hospital waiting lists would plunge, reality television would evaporate due to shabby ratings and social benefits could be distributed as a short term safety net only, with six weeks dependency triggering automatic termination in the broadest possible sense.”